Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar systems, and more specifically relate to dynamically programming chirps in FMCW radar systems.
Description of the Related Art
Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) automotive radar systems transmit and receive parameterized frequency-modulated signals commonly referred to as chirps. Typical applications of automotive radar systems require that the radar systems transmit a “burst” or sequence of chirps which may be referred to as a “frame” with minimal time gap between the chirps. A programmable digital timing engine configures the transmitted chirps. Typically, the parameter values of a chirp to be transmitted are written by a software program to a set of parameter registers in the timing engine. Due to software latency, chirp parameters may be fixed for a frame, i.e., the chirp parameters are programmed at the beginning of a frame and the timing engine configures each chirp in the frame using these parameters.
In some radar systems, there may be two sets of parameter registers. In such systems, the software may program both sets of registers to pre-configure two different types of chirps. The sequence of chirps transmitted during the frame is then selected based on the value of a counter. For example, the two pre-configured chirps may be transmitted in an alternating fashion based on the counter value being even or odd.